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Server Crash Ruins Veterinarian’s Summer Vacation


Why Backups & Strategic Business Continuity Planning Could Help You Keep Your Vacation

Why proactive data backup and recovery solutions are the only way to protect your continuity

So, about that vet clinic we mentioned above – here’s a bit of history. They’re a veterinary clinic based in Dallas/Fort Worth and they were relying on a less-than-ideal server situation. Their primary server and IT infrastructure were stuffed into a small closet with little to no ventilation.

Unfortunately, this vet clinic experienced a hard drive failure. Because the vet clinic had decided not to invest in Data Magic’s monitoring solutions, the hard drive failure went unfixed. Low and behold, not much later, the clinic’s second hard drive failed in a RAID 5 configuration which resulted in an entire server crash. The worst part? The veterinarian was just about to leave for vacation.

After reaching out to Data Magic, our team of professionals strategically suggested that the clinic invests in a $150 Datto Alto solution. This solution would have essentially taken care of some basic local storage and would have implemented a Cloud back up for up to 2TB of the vet clinic’s data.

However, unfortunately, the clinic decided to decline this solution as well as other solutions offered by the Data Magic team. As a result, the veterinarian missed their vacation to try and address the crash and eventually had to hire a friend to try and do damage control on their network systems.

For us, the moral of the story is to trust and work with the industry professionals that you’ve left your network in the hands of. While additional investment can seem like a pain, it’s far from unnecessary. In fact, these upfront and initial investments could end up saving you big time in the long run. This client’s story has us thinking it’s probably time to go over the basics of backups and business continuity planning to ensure you and your team recognize their importance.

  1. Do you have backups in place?

First things first, does your organization or business have backup solutions in place? Think about all the data you collect, store, and share. If something were to happen – like a cyber-attack or a server crash, do you have recent data backups in place to help you avoid disruption and limit downtime?

Whether your network operates on physical server infrastructure or Cloud servers, there are countless options available for data backup and data recovery solutions. The key is that you don’t wait until disaster strikes to start thinking about backup technologies. Being proactive is the name of the game when it comes to backups and business continuity.

  1. If not, are you afraid of the additional investment?

Now, if you answered no to the first question, we want to try and get down to the reasons why. As mentioned, proactive backups can make all the difference between disaster and recovery. Have you been putting it off for as long as you can remember? Think about it for a second and try and put your finger on why.

Many times, organizations put off backup solutions because they don’t want to spend the upfront investment. However, please believe us when we say, this initial investment will be much less of a strain on your bottom line than trying to rebound after facing disaster unprepared. Without backups in place, if your data is lost, stolen, or held hostage, you may lose all of it – forever.

In today’s connected world, this means your business could be forced to start from scratch – not to mention the potential legal costs associated with stolen customer data, compliance penalties or unfulfilled service contracts. Does that upfront investment for backup solutions still sound unreasonable?

  1. If you do have backups in place, have you tested them?

This next section is really important. Now, all you readers who are feeling proud of yourselves for having backups in place – here’s our next question: have you tested them? We hate to break it to you, but even if you have the most sophisticated backup solutions in place, they’re meaningless if you haven’t tested them. Here’s why.

Backup solutions are designed to restore your most critical data as efficiently as possible. In case of disaster, you should have a detailed plan for what data needs to be restored and in what order. In order to ensure that your plan is executed effectively in the case of disaster, you must make sure you’ve deployed some test runs. Without testing your backups, you’ll never know for sure if your data recovery effort will go as planned.

It’s not just enough to test them once either. In fact, your organization should have a regular schedule for backup testing. Ideally, you should be backing up data and testing the backup every time new data is entered into your company network. However, this is understandably unrealistic. Instead, you should work with your team to come up with a backup testing schedule and stick to it with dedication. This way, you’ll constantly be reassured that your backup solutions are locked and loaded.

  1. Have you developed a strategic business continuity plan?

We’ve touched on this in the other categories, but we really can’t stress just how important proactive planning is when it comes to business continuity. In order to ensure your company is prepared to bounce back from disaster, you and your team need to take proactive steps and plan ahead for the worst-case scenario.

First off, train your team to be your strongest line of defense against cybercrime. Make sure they know how to identify threats and who to report problems too. Also, be sure you have a strategic business continuity plan in place that explicitly states how each team member will contribute to the restoration effort. A strong business continuity plan makes considerations for your company data at all end-points, so make sure to spend the time and resources necessary to prepare yourself and your team.

Backups & Business Continuity: Your Ticket to a Stress-Free Holiday

Simply put, the best way to protect your company network and your business continuity is to plan ahead. Don’t make the same mistake as our client. Don’t put off implementing backup solutions that will help you maintain continuity and keep your vacation plans.

The moral of the story is, you need to make a consistent and explicit effort to keep your company network running and your business data protected. Think of business continuity planning as your ‘cyber-emergency’ response plan. If you’re about to head out on vacation and disaster strikes, you should have a plan in place that allows you to enjoy a worry-free holiday while your team and tech support works to restore operations at the office.

Finally, make sure to put your trust in IT industry experts when trying to develop a strategic business continuity plan. The right IT services consultant will have an insider perspective and will offer countless resources to ensure your business continuity strategy is proactive and reliable.

While IT investments may seem like a pain, trust us when we tell you that they more than pay for themselves over time. Even better? When you partner with a strategic IT consultant, you’re investing in more than tech solutions. You’re investing in the expertise, experience, and business value that only a professional IT services consultant can offer.

Did you find this article informative? We’re happy to help! If you liked this, check out these other articles we think you’ll love

https://datamagicinc.com/finding-the-right-managed-services-provider-questions-answers/

https://datamagicinc.com/microsoft-common-security-threats-questions-answers/

https://datamagicinc.com/cyber-theft-a-real-threat-to-small-businesses/


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